The Urban Dictionary Mug

Gary Fung, creator of isoHunt website wrote, "Legally, BitTorrent requires simultaneous upload in order to download. So the concept of "file sharer" on BitTorrent is blurred. Technically, everyone is a sharer, it's a requirement in order to download. So its openness is an unintentional strength. No anonymizing system is completely crack-proof anyways, just like DRM, so poor privacy isn't much of a weakness. Strength in numbers, and security by obscurity."

Unlike what other people have said, because bittorrent involves the sharing between every bittorrent user, this system is more safe because there are no main uploaders who will be targeted. If the RIAA or MPAA would sue a person, it would have to be at complete random. Like Gary Fung said up there, we have ,"strength in numbers, and security by obscurity.

i just downloaded the entire discography of Metallica in 20 minutes using bittorrent! there must have been over 400 people downloading it!

The Urban Dictionary Mug

A peer to peer (P2P) file transferring client that is much safer then Limewire. Look down for why it is (second paragraph).

Many people fret over legal issues and the chances of them getting caught downloading (or uploading) copyrighted material, however, the chances are virtually nil.

Because Bittorrent and all those P2P torrent clients are not connected to a centralized server, there is no way to actively monitor who connects and who doesn't, with the exception of your ISP (however, note that they can only target individuals at a time.).

And malware? Yeah, you get that with some torrents inevitably, but a key thing to downloading a torrent is to ALWAYS check comments (if there are any) on that specific download. People will report whether the download is clean or not. If you read a comment saying the torrent has a trojan, that's usually a sign to back off, however, there are some exceptions (i.e. Anti-virus picks up something as malicious even though it isn't. It happens.).

Now, on the topic of legal issues and uploading, let's say a massive torrenting site is taken down by the RIAA, like The Pirate Bay. They might think "A job well done", however, even though that site is taken down, not only are there hundreds more to suffice for it, but the same uploaders can take THEIR material and re-upload it on a different site!

That's another point I have to bring up. Seeders (I'm assuming you know what this means, but think of it as an uploader if you don't. More on this later...). When you seed a torrent, you are giving out pieces of information for the download to peers, or the people sitting there downloading whatever it is they are downloading. So even if a couple uploaders are sued and jailed, anyone could immediately take their place and it wouldn't matter.

Don't take it the wrong way though; anonymity is extremely hard, if not impossible, to obtain unless you're on a private tracker. A simple DOS command reveals all the current IP addresses coming in and connecting to you. But are they honestly going to sit there and count off the over 300 million users that use P2P, probably gaining new users every day?

Don't think so.

The lesson here, is that the Bittorrent and other, similar clients make is extremely hard to track someone downloading anything. On top of that, you are not anonymous when downloading or uploading, and a general synopsis of what goes on within the clients.

The Urban Dictionary Mug

A massively swarming, file sharing program that allows users to simultaneously upload parts that users have already downloaded. It allows for the fast transfer of files and the mass sharing of downloads. Web-sites use trackers and indexes to allow users access to others with files that they need.

I downloaded Driv3r on bittorrent the day it came out, but I bought a copy because I'm legal like that.

The Urban Dictionary Mug

a p2p program that allows people to share movies, appz , music, porn, etc. it is super popular and you can get anything you want. its the RIAA's worst nightmare. the files on bit torrent are .torrent or just torrent's.You can get the official bit torent at www.bittorrent.com or other good clients like uTorrent or Bit Tornado

The Urban Dictionary Mug

a program written by bram cohen. it allows users to distribute software/games/images/movies etc. in such a way that, once you begin downloading, you upload what you have to other peers. this way the download can be faster. it has proven a popular distribution method for fansubs and legitimate softwae, as it doesn't jam servers and drain bandwidth of sites, so they can host torrents without worry.

there are many clients out there, the first being bi torrent by bram cohen, but others prove popular including bit tornado, and more graphically pleasing ones like azureus, bit comet, bitspirit and ABC.